Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

Mugabe: Equality Violates Women’s Rights

Robert Mugabe, the insane leader of Zimbabwe, spoke recently at a conference on AIDS and delivered a bizarre, rambling diatribe. It’s hard to make out exactly what he’s saying, but he clearly thinks that homosexuality violates the rights of women by robbing them of the ability to have children.

After earlier remarks by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay referring to the criminalization of homosexuality in some countries, Mugabe said Zimbabwe and Africa won’t recognize same-sex marriage because it leads to human “extinction.”

He said male homosexuality took away women’s traditional rights of being mothers.

Homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, who has repeatedly described same-sex partners as “lower than dogs and pigs,” has vowed not to allow gay rights to be included in a new constitution being drafted.

“Mothers were given the talent to bear children. That talent doesn’t belong to men,” he said.

“When God created Adam … if Adam had desired a person like him it would not have made him any happier,” Mugabe said.

“When a man says he wants to get married to another man, we in Zimbabwe don’t accept it. We can’t talk of women’s rights at all if we go in that direction. It will lead to extinction,” he said.

Cross-culturally, there is often a double standard with regards to homosexuality. In many cultures, both male and female homosexuality is condemned etc. In others, male homosexuality is condemned, while absolutely nothing is done concerning female homosexuality.

There is a curious double standard in regards to anti-homosexual laws–they do not always apply to lesbians. This may be due to the fact that the existence of female homosexuality is less likely to be socially acknowledged or that it is considered acceptable behavior, at least in private.

WP reports that the same double standard exists with regards to laws outlawing homosexuality; in some cases, male homosexuality is illegal while female homosexuality is not.

Most homophobes are also misogynists. Misogynists don’t consider women actual people. One of the ways this expresses itself is that most misogynists don’t consider women to have any desires; desires being a quality that people have, not objects like women. Thus women don’t have any innate desire for sex. Women, to misogynists, are merely labor saving devices that can be used to aid in chores, produce useful products (i.e. children), project status, and are occasionally fun to stick your dick into. (Seen in this light, the reason misogynists seek to treat women as chattel is obvious: women aren’t fundamentally different than sheep in this view.)

From the viewpoint that women lack desires, lesbianism is unthinkable. First, it requires not one but two women to have desires of a sexual nature. Second, it requires those sexual desires to be expressed in a way that only satisfies the desires of the women and not a man, through sexual gratification, child-bearing, or titillation. Such things are unthinkable to a misogynist, so they merely deny the existence of Lesbians; if they consider the matter at all.